Lawyer Finds Source Of Pain In 'Malpractice Crisis'

March 11, 1988|By Wallace W. Hardy

Recently I read a My Word column by J.N. Brouillette, M.D. It was a tongue-in-cheek slap at lawyers and the legal system in which the doctor suggested that physicians be paid, like lawyers, on a contingency fee basis.

It was based on the implied premise that all of the blame for high malpractice premiums can be laid at the feet of the legal profession. Because I am a lawyer, I was tempted to respond to the doctor. An incident involving my wife, however, made me realize that no further responses from the bar to the medical field are needed.

My wife developed some pain in her right shoulder one morning after doing some stretching exercises and taking her daily walk. When she began to experience numbness in the arm, I suggested she see a doctor and recommended a local orthopedic clinic.

Having done personal-injury litigation for a number of years, I was sure that a nerve was being pinched. Because an upper extremity was involved, I suspected it was a nerve stemming from one of the cervical vertebrae, in the neck. But I believe it is worth the cost of a doctor's visit to make sure.

She arrived for her appointment, filled out the necessary forms and was taken to an examination room. She waited two hours there with nothing to read, no one to talk to and nothing to look at except four walls. The doctor eventually arrived, put her through the usual range of motion tests and knowingly informed her that she was suffering from degenerative disc disease. He did not offer to explain what that was, how serious it was or what the course of the disease would be.

Fortunately, my wife had been a legal secretary for a number of years and knew that it was not anything serious. The doctor, however, did not know that she knew this.

The doctor told his assistant that my wife needed to have some X-rays taken and both the doctor and his assistant left the room. Unsure if she was to take herself to X-ray or whether someone would take her there, my wife stepped into the hallway to ask someone. She had to speak twice to a nurse who was talking to another nurse. The nurse rudely waved off my wife, finished her conversation and then sharply told my wife that someone from X-ray would get her.

After the X-rays, my wife was told to get dressed and take her papers to the cashier without being given directions as to where this person was. She was tempted to bypass the cashier and leave.

My wife's experience underlies the real cause of the medical field's problem today. High malpractice premiums reflect more and higher malpractice verdicts. Juries are more willing to render verdicts against doctors than ever before. They do not know the defendant doctor anymore. Gone is the friendly family physician who was generally on time for his appointments, took some time with his patients, explained things to them as well as he could and treated his patients as fellow human beings instead of lowly cattle.

If physicians are looking for answers to the ''malpractice crisis,'' they should consider the statement made by the cartoon character in Pogo: ''We have met the enemy and he is us.''